| trapeze 11 |
[11 Jul 2009|03:33pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 tired |
] |
Went trapezing on Thursday. It was a bad call as I was tired and stressed about my presentation. I worked on swing and got "flat" a few times although I'm not pushing my hips forward enough on the 7. Tried to catch set split, but on the practice swing had my hands too close together, then on the 1st try the top of my foot hit the wrong side of the bar and I was too tired to correct. I was going to stop then but after a break I decided to try a knee hang (the least physically demanding catch). Caught the kneehang with Neil. It was good to end on a positive note after feeling somewhat discouraged. Trapeze is a good incentive to get enough sleep. When I come back I start my IFW (intensive flying workshop)! Every week I'll fly with the same people and instructors (and maybe catchers, but that's less certain). I'm very excited!
|
|
| presentation update |
[11 Jul 2009|12:42pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 working |
] |
Talk is down to 11 pages, that will have to do for now. Working on the presentation which is coming together very quickly thanks to D.'s impressive scanning-fu. It's almost 1pm I have to leave for the airport at 8pm, still need to pack, but I have a list so should be fine. Wish me good luck with traveling and the talk!
|
|
| Spezzatino calll for volunteers |
[10 Jul 2009|12:14pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 awake |
] |
If anyone's looking to do some great volunteer work or round our your writing/photography/graphic design/marketing portfolio thought I'd pass this along.
Spezzatino is looking for volunteer contributors.
If you like food (and who doesn't?) consider volunteering
for Spezzatino magazine.
As you know, Spezzatino is a nonprofit magazine that
supports the Healthy Food Bank foundation. The
HFB is a registered charity that provides nutritious foods
like fruits, vegetables and whole grains to local food banks
around Canada and the United States.
( Details below )
|
|
| in which there is panic |
[09 Jul 2009|11:55pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 stressed |
] |
You guys I am freaking out. I'm giving this paper in Brighton next week and my presentation is not finished and I am in full-on panic mode.
It's supposed to be 20 minutes so to me that's 10 typed pages. Right now I'm down to 12.25 that I'm pretty sure is coherent and flows. I've reworked it so the stuff I visually dissect in the last third shows up 1st thing at the beginning (for coherency and continuity and so we have something interesting to look at at the start). But still cutting 2 more pages, oh noes. (Although cutting is better than blank page, right? right?)
The panic is bad enough that D. has taken pity on me and is doing some (very brief) last minute translation and (slightly more extensive) last minute scanning as there is no way in hell I'm taking my precious reprints across the ocean out of my apartment.*
Note that everything would have been fine if this wasn't the culmination of my 6-week summer course. I'm giving the final tomorrow, spending tomorrow afternoon grading and then I fly out Saturday night. (Note I'm not giving the paper until Wednesday so I may have some time to refine it once I'm there, I found the European power adapter for the MacBook, thank god, but I'm a little worried that I won't have access to a printer. I'm staying on campus at the University of Sussex, there's got to be printing somewhere, right? I have three days to find it.)
:whimper:
*The paper is on Yugoslav Dada and I'm using my beautiful expensive 300 limited edition reprints of these journals from the 1920s for my source material.
|
|
| children of earth |
[07 Jul 2009|11:32pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 enthralled |
] |
Torchwood = Holy Crap Awesome! RTD, Moffat has you beat on mood and pacing hands down, but you can really rock the crazy-ass action stuff. Why is it only 5 days!!!
|
|
| trapeze 10 |
[05 Jul 2009|03:30pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 bouncy |
] |
Went trapezing today with ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) insptr_penguin and evil lurker. They were fantastic! Both caught both of their catches. Some video here.
I worked on my swing and caught set split again. Jonathan gave me some good tips (keep everything tight!). I still can't get my right leg straight for set split, but everything else is solid. Everett moved my hand position on the board and with that and keeping my shoulders back my takeoff is feeling smoother.
|
|
| trapeze 8 and 9 |
[04 Jul 2009|01:35am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 cheerful |
] |
Tuesday I abandoned pullover shoot for the time being and started working on my swing (on Brian's advice). We started on back half and I totally wasn't getting enough power on my backward sweep or the shape of the 7 at all. (Don't worry if this makes no sense.) Swing takes months or years of work, it basically gives you height so you can perform more complicated tricks.
Tonight I had a class with Jill (her first class). She was so awesome, making both her knee-hang catches! I continued to work on my swing (entries are going to get pretty repetitive after this, sorry). I made real progress, getting the 7 so we started to work on the entire thing. I'm also feeling stronger and more confident on my one-handed takeoff thanks to some tips from Neil. All-in-all a great class! There were two super-cute little girls 6 and 10 who flew. The entire class was women and everyone was really nice. Afterwards a bunch of us went out to Rocket Bar. It was a fun Friday night (that had started out wonderfully at J.'s birthday party.)
Happy 4th everyone!
|
|
| trapeze 7 |
[28 Jun 2009|01:00am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 okay |
] |
Friday I continued to work on pullover shoot. The pullover is coming along, but I need my shoot to be more vertical and more bouncy or zoomy or something. Brian suggested that next class I start working on my swing as well as the trick.
I threw set split to the catcher. First one worked, the second we were a little off for the timing. I did get someone to tape for me. It isn't my most beautiful attempt (could arch my back and straighten my leg more), but I caught it! Also note this is my first time leaving the board one-handed assisted for a catch. (As opposed to putting both hands on the bar before I jump, assisted means they're still holding my belt.)
Today had a good time at bookgroup hosted by the lovely treewishes :)
|
|
| I just don't know people |
[24 Jun 2009|10:21pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 disappointed |
] |
Two things that are making me sad about the world right now:
We have the shaming of a sexual abuse survivor by a member of the lj community. (Warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery.) Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) giddygeek's post here.
It makes me so angry and so sad that someone can treat another person (who has shared a deeply personal part of themselves in an effort to educate people about triggering) with such cruelty.
Apparently we're beyond discussing the distinction between rude and hurtful and need to cover treating other people like human beings.
If that wasn't bad enough we have a hateful, misogynistic ad campaign designed to prey upon women's insecurities and reinforce the idea that we should use and hate each other (and of course ourselves). (Warning, potentially triggery for body image stuff.) The women in the ads look like regular, attractive people (the woman in the pink dress in particular is rocking it out). Cue more anger. I do not understand how this ad campaign came to be. The copy. OMG really. No one, no one, realized what a horrible, horrible thing this is. And it's aimed at women. At women! WTF world.
eta: I think I learned about Abercrombie's douchery in college, but since I'm posting about shaming and bodies, here's another example.
|
|
| trapeze 6 |
[22 Jun 2009|09:03pm] |
|
Worked on pullover shoot, got marginally better, but plenty more work to do. I need my pullover to be even cleaner so my swing is higher and I have some power for the shoot. Helps to keep everything tight, and my toes down and chest up once I flip over the bar. Kept landing on my middle on the bar so I started to feel really tired and sick by the end of class. Threw two fine set splits, but didn't catch them, timing was off.
Note to self: no dinner right before pullover shoots.
Received several phone message from my mom and one from my aunt re: metro accident. D. called me as I was about to go into the red line at Farragut and rerouted me to orange. My thoughts are with those who died or were injured. It's a sad day in DC.
|
|
| trapeze 5 |
[19 Jun 2009|06:09pm] |
|
Warmed up with a set split that didn't happen. Learned was introduced to pullover shoot. Had three tries and made it up on the second one (woot!, I really didn't see how I was going to make it over the bar). Now once I was there I had no idea how to pump and shoot because I never expected to make it up there *facepalm*. Went back to set split for catching, missed the 1st due to coming around with my hands again, but made the 2nd and Scout said it was very smooth. :) I asked someone to video with my camera, but she did a test and then I ran out of memory card space. *facepalm again* Will try again next week.
|
|
| trapeze 3 and 4 (set split) |
[16 Jun 2009|05:53pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 accomplished |
] |
Trapeze 3 was last Friday. I worked on my split and made quite a bit of progress. Scout asked if I was getting frustrated and wanted to move on, but I was cool to work on it another class. I attempted to catch it, but was about 6 inches too low each time because I wasn't getting into 1st position fast enough. So close!
Trapeze 4 was today. For the first time I got the split on my first swing of the day! (Earlier I needed more of a warm up.) I got it consistently throughout the class. My first catch I missed because I grabbed for Scout (arrg, I was concentrating really hard on not letting go early. With split you see the catcher for a long time and if you let go early you still have forward momentum and will crash into them--I've seen it, it's not pretty, so you have to wait until the top of the swing, when they tell you, to let go).
The second time I made my catch!!! Yay finally!!! It was very satisfying.
(Sorry I forgot the camera, I'll try to remember if I get the chance to do it again.)
I also started working on one-handed takeoff, which is a little scary but good. I hate being out there with both hands on the bar waiting to jump and I feel more like a real trapeze person with one handed takeoff. I did it a couple times, but I want to do it a bunch more to feel really comfortable (they're still holding me by the belt while I takeoff).
So all-in-all a really satisfying class. I've been doing more weights at the gym and I feel that consistency has helped me build up a little more strength and has made a real difference (go squat and deadlift).
|
|
| Patrick and Denis |
[13 Jun 2009|02:49pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
working |
] |
A picture from last weekend Taffy posted in her blog. Her caption reads:
Patrick and Denis chat. Patrick really likes Denis even though we don't get to see him very often. Oh yeah- Andrea [Patrick's babydoll] went to hang on the swing too but she must have fallen off.
( guys on the swing )
D. is in NYC with durdge and jem this weekend doing fun ravenchase activities. I'm home working, blech.
|
|
| jacob pic |
[12 Jun 2009|04:35pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
okay |
] |
Jacob slept in the swing for mom and me, but he hasn't wanted to for Melissa before today. He likes to sleep with his arms up, sweet baby!
( cut tagged for the baby-adverse )
|
|
optimistic
sad
distressed
busy
confused
nostalgic